Disillusioned (Swept Away, #2)(7)

“It doesn’t matter.” His eyes narrowed. “I have other things to take care of first.”

“What other things?”

“I need to find out who got to Steve and why . . .” His voice trailed off and he looked out to the ocean. “I suggest you leave well enough alone, Bianca.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Stop being Nancy Drew. Take this opportunity and disappear.”

“You think I’m playing a part?”

“I don’t even know what you’re doing, Bianca.” His lips thinned. “In other circumstances, I would have been curious. Now, I don’t care.”

“You don’t care?” Hurt coursed through my veins.

“You tricked me once, Bianca. I won’t let you trick me again.”

“How did I trick you? What are you talking about?” My head was running in circles at his words. He was a master manipulator, that was for sure. He even had me questioning myself and my motives. He seemed genuinely confused as to why Steve had become more sinister. I was pretty confident that Jakob was legitimately perplexed as to why Steve had turned on him. Though, I didn’t know if I was smart to trust my instincts. I’d already been wrong once.

“Let it go, Bianca.” He sighed. “I can’t let my feelings for you stop me from doing what I need to do.”

“What do you need to do?”

“As much as you don’t trust me, I don’t know if I can trust you.” He glanced at me for a few seconds again, and his eyes ran up and down my body, unable to hide his lust.

“Fine, then neither one of us trusts each other.” I glared at him, my heart beating fast as he gazed at my legs.

“Come with me. Could we spend one more night together?” he asked softly, his tone smooth.

“What do you mean, come with you? Are you joking?” I shouted. “I’m not going anywhere with you!”

“This is confusing for me as well.”

“I don’t care what this is for you, you liar.”

“Bianca—”

“Don’t say my name!” I screamed.

“I wish I understood you.” He seemed sad. “I wish I understood who you really are.”

“I wish I knew who you really are as well, Jakob.”

“We’re like the mountain and the treacherous deep blue ocean,” he said wryly.

“Why’s that?”

“We’re both powerful in our own ways and we both have hidden depths and dangers.” All of a sudden he looked sad. “And you never see them next to each other.”

“What do you mean?”

“Have you ever seen a mountain overlooking the ocean?”

“No, I’ve never seen that.”

“I wish I could trust you, Bianca. I wish I could tell you the truth and know that you’d understand—”

“You wish you could trust me?” I laughed. “I will never trust you again, never.”

“I wish you would.” He grabbed my arms and pulled me to him. “Don’t you understand, Bianca, this is more than both of us. This is about a past that neither one of us understands.”

“What would you have me do, Jakob?” I asked softly. “What would you have me do?”

“Forget everything.” His voice was tense as he pleaded with me. The muscles at the side of his jaw were clenched. “If you want to be safe, you need to forget everything.”

“I don’t care about being safe. I want answers. I want to know if my mother was murdered. I want to know if your father had her killed just so he could have a successful business.”

“Do you think it’s as simple as that, Bianca? Do you think that life is ever as simple as that?”

“You know the answers. You know secrets that I don’t. And I don’t know why you won’t tell me.” I gulped. “What are you afraid of, Jakob? Are you scared that I’m going to take all of your money? Are you afraid that this hotel, your planes, your cars, everything you own, is going to belong to me? Is that why you kidnapped me? Is that why you tried to frighten me off? At what point did you come up with this plan? Was it the first time that David asked you to meet me or the fifth? Is this why you never wanted us to meet?” I froze as thoughts ran in my head clumsily.

“David never told me you were anxious to meet . . .” Jakob frowned as his voice trailed off.

“Sure he didn’t. I’ve been wanting to meet you for a long time, Mattias. You know that. David called you repeatedly while we were together, but you’d never accept our invitations. And meeting you—or should I say Mattias—was all I talked about on the island. Oh, how you must have laughed at me!”

“I never laughed at you.”

“How gullible I was,” I continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “From the first moment, when I came to in the trunk of the car, you must have been laughing at me. How easy I was to fool.”

“Bianca, what we had, what we shared, it was—”

“Shut up.” I glared at him, my heart feeling as if it were going to explode in sadness and confusion. “Just shut up. I don’t want to hear what you have to say. I don’t want to listen to your lies anymore.”